Reorienting Learning Game Design in Design-Based Research: a Case Study

Abstract: One of the main difficulties remains the collaboration between the various experts involved in designing the Learning Games (LG). Our literature review focuses on the pitfalls and principles that have been identified by various authors in learning games design. Based on this review, a prototype was designed to support the LG design process and to study more precisely the collaboration between actors (teachers, researchers, game designers, data analyst and computer scientist). Indeed, according to the state of the art, the skills and knowledge involved in design are difficult to integrate. It has been tested in a real-world scenario for designing learning games to teach algorithmic. Through participant observation in thirty-three workshops involving nine experts, we were able to identify recurring pitfalls as we applied the recommendations in the literature. The analysis of these workshops led to propose eight principles aimed at facilitating the collaboration between the learning games design process and re-evaluating research on its.